← Back to Home
2:30
Microtubule Highway cover image

Microtubule Highway

Cells move cargo on microtubules, polarized tracks with a minus end and a plus end. Pick the right motor protein, make it walk, and deliver each cargo. Seven lessons, from a simple cell to axons and mixed-polarity dendrites. A timed session gives you 150 seconds of active play; study mode has no time limit.

Controls: alternate A / ← (left head) and D / → (right head) to take steps; Space re-binds a detached motor. On touch devices use the on-screen buttons.

− minus end (α-tubulin exposed)+ plus end (β-tubulin exposed)
Choose the motor attached to this cargo:

Choose a lesson

Each timed practice allows 150 seconds. Complete all lessons in untimed study to explore every mechanism.

Check your understanding

Journey complete

For the curious at heart. A pocket-sized collection of science-inspired games.
Made for a quick break, a little discovery, and one more round.

DESKTOP / TABLET / MOBILE
Your browser is your playground.

How to play

Choose a timed 150-second session or untimed study. Read the track's + and − labels, attach the appropriate motor, and assemble dynein, dynactin and an activating adaptor when needed.

  1. Alternate A / Left and D / Right, or the on-screen head buttons. ATP is consumed by successful steps and replenishes during active play. Space re-binds detached cargo.
  2. Dynamic roads: grow a track from its anchored minus end. After catastrophe, re-route to the parallel track or rescue the shrinking track into growth.
  3. In crowded traffic, coordinate opposing cargo before passing. Tau reduces advance in this illustrative scenario; colored tubulin modifications do not prescribe a universal faster motor.
  4. At the cortex, select myosin V for the short actin handoff. Answer two explained questions after each lesson.

P pauses; help, lesson selection and hiding the browser tab also stop active playing time and ATP resupply. Scores reflect motor and quiz decisions and deliveries, without speed bonuses. Timeout reports unfinished learning; it does not kill a cell.

Science vs. game: Tracks, cargo and motors are enlarged. Alternating inputs demonstrate kinesin-1 stepping; dynein has variable steps and is not required to alternate its heads in this way. The one-unit ATP debit for dynein is a game abstraction. Detachment probabilities, track interventions, obstacles, compressed distances and timing are illustrative. Most real cargo is regulated by multiple motors.